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| Trump official Mehmet Oz voices a wild and absolutely ridiculous claim about creating children's penises as a part of the administration's effort to ban gender-affirming healthcare for trans kids. |
From National Public Radio
Health officials from the Trump administration announced several moves Thursday that will have the effect of essentially banning gender-affirming care for transgender young people, even in states where it is still legal.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads Medicaid and Medicare, announced the measures in a press conference at the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C.
"So-called gender affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people," Kennedy said. "This is not medicine. It is malpractice."
The American Academy of Pediatrics pushed back strongly against HHS's actions.
"These policies and proposals misconstrue the current medical consensus and fail to reflect the realities of pediatric care and the needs of children and families," said AAP President Dr. Susan J. Kressly.
The ban takes the form of two new proposed rules from Medicaid and Medicare. The first prohibits doctors and hospitals from receiving federal Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming care provided to transgender patients younger than age 18. Medicaid is the health care program that covers low-income Americans.
The second rule blocks all Medicaid and Medicare funding for any services at hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care.
Virtually every hospital in the country takes Medicare, which covers older Americans and the disabled. Because hospitals rely on Medicare, the rule would have a wide-ranging effect.
Supporters and opponents of transgender rights agree that, taken together, the forthcoming hospital rules could make access to pediatric gender-affirming care across the country extremely difficult, if not impossible.
From NBC News
HHS also announced that the Food and Drug Administration will issue warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers of breast binders for minors for the purposes of treating gender dysphoria, which is the distress that results from a misalignment between a person’s gender identity and birth sex, alleging that the manufacturers are participating in illegal marketing.
HHS’ Office for Civil Rights proposed a revision to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination in federally funded programs, to clarify that the definitions of “disability” exclude gender dysphoria that does not result from physical impairments.
The proposed revision "clarifies" for HHS funding recipients that "policies preventing or limiting sex-rejecting procedures do not violate Section 504’s disability nondiscrimination requirements," the agency said in a statement.
The proposed CMS rules and revision to Section 504 will be finalized after a 60-day and 30-day comment period, respectively, according to an HHS spokesman.
Those who oppose gender-affirming care for trans youth often copy the narrative used against LGBTQ rights in general - that it is an attempt to indoctrinate kids and will, in the long run, harm them physically and mentally.
In this particular case, they claim that gender-affirming care will make trans kids sterile and generally unhealthy via the use of hormones and specifically by costly and unnecessary surgeries. This narrative was on display during the press conference via a wild claim via Dr. Oz as to how much is being charged to create penises and vaginas for trans kids:
The claims is an extreme exaggeration. The procedure involving penises (phalloplasty) is not performed on minors. You
have to be 18 or older. Vaginoplasties for minors are done in rare cases and in many of those
conditions have nothing to do with the child being trans.
Grok, the fact-checking mechanism found on Twitter, also called out Dr. Oz's statements:
As Grok pointed out in the above statement, when it comes to surgeries involving trans kids, the majority deal with chest procedures or as they are called, "top surgeries." But before anyone against gender-affirming care get all up in arms about this, check out what Grok said about top surgery procedures done for trans kids vs. non-trans kids
The issue is far from over. The American Civil Liberties Union has
announced that they are taking the Trump Administration to court. And as the issue makes its way through the legal courts and the court of public opinion, Trump Administration officials and those who thrive on demonizing trans people will continue to push wild and false claims about sterility, castrations, and surgeries all designed to shock and scare rather than to educate.
These claims are also ugly attempts to drown out the voices of trans kids whose ability to live and thrive in peace will be put in grave danger if their healthcare is taken away.
For one mom of a transgender teen in California, the rules and bills released this week are concerning. She asked that NPR not name her or her child because she fears she could lose her job or risk her family's safety by speaking about their experiences.
"It feels like we're being hunted," she says.
She describes her own process of learning about the options for gender-affirming care for her teenager and concluding that the benefits outweighed the risks. "If we can't stop the government from legislating what health care families can receive in consultation with their doctors, then I don't recognize this America," she says.
Her son is 15-years-old and has been taking testosterone for about 6 months. He is a scout, he runs cross-country, and wants to work in a math or science field. His friends know he is transgender but not everyone at his high school does.
"I kind want to make it clear — I came out to my parents and said that I wanted to start [hormone therapy] and it took them a long time to be OK with that," he says. "We went to a lot of therapy. We had a lot of discussions. My parents — they were scared for me to start it." He says both he and his parents researched it: "It wasn't just like a whim."
He says starting hormone therapy brings to mind a hiking metaphor: "I was like, 'Oh, this is the path that's going to take me to where I want.' I feel like my body is going in the right direction."
The changes the Trump administration and Congress are doing worry him. "It feels like someone's throwing me into the bush just off the path I'm on," he says.
"And that's kind of terrifying. I don't want to be lost. I want to keep going where I'm going."
